One type of smart card connector includes an insulative base that is usually mounted on a circuit board and that holds contacts with tails soldered to traces on the circuit board, and a cover that can hold a smart card and that is pivotally connected to the base. The cover has a cover frame and a locking member that is movable on the cover frame. When the cover is moved fully down against the base, the locking member can be moved from an unlocked position to a locked position to hold down the cover to the base. With the cover pivoted down and locked to the base, contact pads on the card firmly engage contacts on the base. It is noted that the locking member is usually made to slide forward and rearward away and towards the pivot axis of the cover, although other locking motions are possible such as where the locking member pivots between its two positions.
A switch can be used to detect when the cover is fully closed. However, if the cover is closed but not locked in its closed position, then errors can be made in the reading of the smart card. This may occur, for example if a first side of the cover, where a closing-sensing switch is located, is fully depressed, while an opposite second side is not fully depressed. This could result in card pads near the second side not properly engaging contacts near the second side of the base. A device for sensing not only when the cover is closed, but when a fully closed cover had been properly locked in the closed position, would be of value.
Smart card readers are used in a variety of applications, including on portable or cellular telephones. For many of such applications, it is desirable that the smart card reader occupy little space, and especially that it have a very small thickness. A smart card reader that could sense when a cover has been fully closed and properly locked in the closed position, and which was of small height, would be of substantial value.